David Syzdek
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dsyzdek.bsky.social
David Syzdek
@dsyzdek.bsky.social
780 followers 940 following 1.6K posts
Polymath. Endangered species biologist. Views my own.
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dsyzdek.bsky.social
Go UNLV, best UNR!
Three people sitting in bleachers. The old man has a UNLV sweatshirt on. Three people sitting in bleachers. The old man has a UNLV sweatshirt on. Football stadium in Reno.
November 30, 2025 at 2:18 AM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild

Cheetah
Boomslang
Cassowary
Aardvark
Echidna
Echidna selfie. Smiling man wearing a green hat lying on the ground with trees in the background, spiky and weird animal in the foreground. It’s a rubbery nose laying on the ground.
November 28, 2025 at 6:03 PM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Sometimes Death Valley isn’t on the way, but you drive through it anyway.

Because it’s Death Valley.
Picture of some shrubs covering sand dunes in the front, a big sand mountain in the middle of the picture and then in the distance properly blue mountains, totally desert vegetation, just covered in shrubs and a pale blue sky A picture of a river Desert Valley with in sized hills with sports vegetation in the foreground with heavy shadows in the background a large mountain blooms covered in snow on the top of the mountain is obviously very high elevation and doesn’t show a lot of vegetation A close-up of a desert mountain the top half of it’s covered in snow with the bottom half is gray and brown and trends to a Mountain Valley. This is telescope peak in death Valley.
November 25, 2025 at 1:50 AM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
The grief came roaring back tonight. And with it, the rage.

Shattering me.

Breaking me into a million shards.

I will never be whole again.

Yet, I’m still the luckiest man on the planet.

to have been in her heart.
A smiling man and women lean towards each other, bathed in purple light in a bar. The woman is utterly beautiful, and confident, and strong, with dark eyebrows and a big smile and a striped shirt and bare arms and blonde hair lying on her shoulders. The man is grinning goofily with a tinge of white in his beard. They had swapped hats, and the man is now wearing her silly crown, and she is wearing his Devils Hole pupfish hat from Death Valley. A few months later, on an October Monday, she didn’t wake up.
November 19, 2025 at 5:26 AM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Clearing storm clouds in Las Vegas
An orange sunset reflecting in massive puddles from an elevated building showing buildings and roads and a car headlights.
November 19, 2025 at 12:39 AM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
CODA Part 2:

I adopted Abby's kitten after Abby died. Meet Blinky. She is a cuddle bug.
A picture of a handsome bearded man, with a winking cat perched on his shoulder. The kitten is grey and one eye is partially closed with the nictating membrane visible. Kitty eye doc appointment has been made. Cat sprawled on a brick fireplace frame under a sign in neon saying "sin." Cat has one white leg dangling down.
November 13, 2025 at 9:11 PM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
I took some long exposure photos using a neutral density filter to capture ghostly figures (and myself) viewing the altar. I would like to thank our coworker, Natalie, for giving me a long and much-needed hug.

It's been cathartic to be part of this community celebrating Abby's remarkably legacy.
Faint ghostly figures hugging in front of an altar partially obscuring it. A skeleton wearing a orange and black dress is on the right. Altar saying "Abigail Goodrich Phillips. July 28, 1989 – October 13, 2025." Underneath in cursive, "Beauty will save the world" - Fyodor Dostoevsky. Faint ghostly figures hugging in front of an altar partially obscuring it. A skeleton wearing a orange and black dress is on the right. Altar saying "Abigail Goodrich Phillips. July 28, 1989 – October 13, 2025." Underneath in cursive, "Beauty will save the world" - Fyodor Dostoevsky.
November 13, 2025 at 9:11 PM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
CODA:

Abby organized the biggest Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos) celebration in Nevada at Springs Preserve.

On September 9, I was honored to meet the artist, Isaias Hiram Urrabazo, and thank him for his amazing tribute to Abby, his parents, and others.
Altar saying "Abigail Goodrich Phillips. July 28, 1989 – October 13, 2025." Underneath in cursive, "Beauty will save the world" - Fyodor Dostoevsky. The altar has a picture of a young, beautiful woman surrounded by yellow candles, monarch butterflies, skulls, candelabras, flowers, and wreathes. The colors are mostly orange, yellow, gold, and red. It's breathtaking. The altar has a picture of a young, beautiful woman focused in the center surrounded by yellow candles, monarch butterflies, silver candelabras, flowers, and wreathes. The colors are mostly orange, yellow, gold, and red. It's breathtaking. The altar has a picture of a young, beautiful woman surrounded by yellow candles, monarch butterflies, skulls, candelabras, flowers, and wreathes. The colors are mostly orange, yellow, gold, and red. A grinning skeleton sits behind a silver candelabra. The altar has a picture of a young, beautiful woman wearing a Springs Preserve Shirt surrounded by yellow candles, monarch butterflies, skulls, silver candelabras, flowers, and wreaths. The colors are mostly orange, yellow, gold, and red. It's breathtaking.
November 13, 2025 at 9:11 PM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
I am shattered.
A picture of a green box serving as an urn, covered in flowers with a picture of a smiling and beautiful woman above it.
November 13, 2025 at 9:11 PM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
My girlfriend Abby died unexpectedly a month ago. I still don't know what happened, she had a medical event of some sort and she just didn't show up to work on October 13. I don't know her family well and I accept that they may not share the cause.

I was honored to give this eulogy at her memorial:
Handsome man and beautiful woman standing outside in a desert landscape with a concrete dam in the background with a white owl painted on the dam. The couple are wearing sunglasses and smiling. A handsome man and a beautiful woman are standing on the bank of a desert river (the Virgin River) near Overton Nevada. The background is blurred but you can see cumulus clouds and distant mountains. A man and woman are sitting in a dark bar. The man is holding a bottle of wine, and the woman is hiding some over face behind a Bettie Page fan and coquettishly looking over the fan with smiling eyes. A grinning couple sitting at a bar in purple light. The man is wearing her crown and the woman with a beautiful smile and laughing eyes is wearing his Devils Hole pupfish hat. She is leaning into him with affection.
November 13, 2025 at 9:10 PM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Post a bird to support @sbworkersunited.org and warn your followers not to buy Starbucks for the duration of the strike 🪶

This musk duck, a particularly weird duck that I saw on a stupidly hot day in Perth Australia last January, inflates its weird leathery wattle pouch in disgust at US Starbucks.
A dark gray duck sitting low in the water with an upright black tail at a 45° angle. Under its black bill, it has a large round leather sack that is inflated. The sack is almost as big as its head. This bird is a musk duck and was photographed in Perth Australia and it’s the only species in its genus that has still alive.
November 13, 2025 at 7:41 PM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
I could talk to for hours about everything and anything.

I had the fortune to know her both professionally and personally.
I wish I could have seen her career flourish and I wish I could have seen where our friendship would have taken us.

The world deserved another 40 or 50 years of Abby Phillips.
A smiling man and a smiling woman stand in front of a concrete dam in a dry desert wash with a large black-and-white barn owl painted on the dam. Both are wearing sunglasses, and the woman is wearing a gray hat. The man is wearing a gray shirt and has a camera strap over his shoulder and the woman is wearing a black shirt and has a silver necklace surround her neck. A smiling man and women stand in front of a shallow desert river taking a selfie. Both are wearing sunglasses and smiling at the camera, the Desert mountains behind them are distant, and the sky is dotted with fluffy gray and white clouds. This photo was taken near Logandale Nevada. The river is the Virgin river. A man and a woman are taking a selfie at a dark bar. The lighting is making them purple. The woman is renting a wide grin and leaning against the man hands cross cross her chest, and she has a big smile on her face. they swapped hats, and the man is wearing a crown, and the woman that is wearing a gray baseball style hat with a blue devils hole pupfish on it A man and a woman are sitting in a dark bar. The man is holding a bottle of Bettie Paige wine and the woman is holding a fan that is open and covering her face. The fan has a picture of the pinup girl Bettie Paige and the woman that’s looking at the camera over the fan on the wall you can see the two hilts of crossed swords on the wall. This is obviously a very awesome tiki bar.
October 26, 2025 at 8:05 PM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Found a juvenile California kingsnake with a heart on her head.
Black and white with obvious white shirt on the back of his head in the hand of a human with the fingers being much larger than the snakes head Headshot of a small king snake with mainly a black head and a white face there’s four white dots on top of the head with a white heart facing downward on the back of the head.
October 24, 2025 at 6:54 AM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Fall colors in Southern Nevada at the Warm Springs Natural Area with a yerba mansa meadow, and a colorful male tree lizard.

2025 is an “annus horribilis” for me but being in nature is helping somewhat.

And friends. Friends are helping too.
A brown and yellow grassy meadow with scattered wide leaved forbs, with a line of Cottonwood trees in the background. The view of a belly of a lizard with a turquoise flanks, tan chest, an orange chin Close up with the chin of the lizard showing orange scales with a pale green patch of scales in the center of the throat near the neck. Close-up of the turquoise patches on the flanks of the belly of the lizard with a gray chest and a grey stripe going down the middle.
October 21, 2025 at 4:45 AM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Long-nosed leopard lizard is tired of this.

All of this. 🦎
Glamour head shot of a leopard lizard taken in eastern Nevada near Pioche. This lizard is tan with dark spots. I’m mostly dark head and has a disdainful expression. you can see anout of focus finger holding the animal along with a blurry, rushy, yellow and brown landscape with distant, dark brown mountains, and a blue sky covered in out of focus thin cirrus clouds.
October 19, 2025 at 6:13 PM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
And the Vegas local NBC affiliate just said only 100 people showed up.

Wrong! That was the number of Metro cops standing in the middle of Las Vegas Boulevard making sure people stayed on the sidewalks instead of a closed street.
Four cop standing in the middle of the street next to police cruiser a woman walking a dog is crossing the street a few more cops are visible in the background A Metro Las Vegas police officer standing in the middle of the street. His right hand is partially blocking a bunch of zip ties hanging from his waist. His left hand is sitting on his taser. He’s wearing a riot helmet, but the face mask is up and he kinda looks kind of bored in the background is a police cruiser behind a palm tree in the meeting of the street in the foreground, a protester with a sign is looking in his direction. A picture of three police vehicles lined up next to a median that has palm trees and smaller shrubs on it. in the foreground, two Metro police officers wearing open Wright helmets. One is a man and one is a woman are standing and talking and facing each other. In the background on the far side walk, protesters can be seen carrying signs and walking. A picture of the protest in Las Vegas in the foreground several protesters are seen walking or standing and carrying signs. The middle of the street has a median that is lined with patrol cars. There’s at least four patrol cars on this side of the street and several on the first side of the street sidewalk on the far side of the street also has protesters walking on it. In the background hidden in the glare of the sun is a large building, which is the federal courthouse.
October 19, 2025 at 3:45 AM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Some great signs from the #NoKings protest in Las Vegas today. Totally peaceful of course.
Protest line it says “bee free no kings!” Sign that shows a kitten with a cute orange bow reading a book and it says “you know these fuckers banning books don’t read shit.“ I congratulated the person on this cool sign, she said my friend made it, and it turned out the friend is my ex-girlfriend‘s best friend. It’s a small world here in Las Vegas. Sign that says “go fuck a couch JD!!“ Is a textured couch in pink with pink cushions on it with a side view of JD Vance, and he has a very small penis on a spring that is protruding from the sign and casting a small shadow on the side of the pink couch A sign showing a picture of Donald Trump‘s face next to another picture of zoomed in on Donald Trump‘s mouth and throat zoomed in on his throat, which is saggy and showing a narrow slit and it says “I bet when he looks at the mirror, he tries to grab it”
October 18, 2025 at 11:15 PM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Vote 2567 for Merlin.

But we do need a Shazam for frog and toad calls.

Ribbit.
A green bullfrog with protruding eyes sitting on a rough road surface.
October 9, 2025 at 7:31 PM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Had my 35th high school reunion yesterday. It was a lot of fun.
A group of about 20 people standing on a curved stairwell in a home. The best looking guy is at the top of the staircase and wearing a blue shirt with white dots.
October 6, 2025 at 1:46 AM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Tomorrow will be a good day for multiple layers of asbestos.
Local TV weather report showing the next weeks highs in the upper 80s except for Sunday, which is tomorrow showing a high of 9283°.
September 28, 2025 at 3:41 AM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Had one a month ago in Moapa. Seemed a little early.
Black tarantula with a bit of brown on it thorax quite hairy on a dark pavement road lit up by a spotlight.
September 28, 2025 at 2:38 AM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Pics from NWS Las Vegas Facebook page.
September 27, 2025 at 2:44 AM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
This seems better than bulldozing thousands of acres of desert tortoise habitat for solar.

Put them over canals, put them on the dried lakebed of Lake Powell, put them on cables over open pit mines, put them over parking lots.

But not on wildlife habitat.
Desert tortoise crossing a dirt road with a close-up on the tortoise. Its head is out and its elbows are up by its ears and the distance a dark Jeep grand Cherokee with an open door can be seen, parked far away from the tortoise and out of focus. This photo was taking in Gold Butte national Monument, near Mesquite, Nevada.
September 12, 2025 at 1:19 AM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Cute? We got cute!

Reptiles can be cute too. #reptiles

This is a silly little gecko from Western Australia back in January.
A bashful looking gecko on an Australian road. It’s a zoomed in shot. The animal has deep, dark expressive eyes. It has yellow and gray watches on its round head and a bashful expression. Its body is light orange with tiny white spots and orange is pink, long legs and it’s standing up high above the pavement it’s tail is fat but rapidly get small down to a tiny little knob.
September 12, 2025 at 12:39 AM
dsyzdek.bsky.social
Cute posting indeed! #mammals (kangaroo mouse)
A picture of a small rodent with large ear and a very big head, tannish gray for long whiskers and a dark eye sitting on someone’s hand in a desert landscape
September 11, 2025 at 8:33 PM